Connector clip



Dec. 7,1965 5. J. SKONY 3,222,633

CONNECTOR CLIP Filed Nov. 8, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 7, 1965 s. J. SKONY 3,222,633

commc'ron CLIP Filed Nov. 8, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent ()fiice 3,222,633 Patented Dec. 7, 1965 3,222,633 CONNECTOR CLIP Sigmund J. Skony, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Van Products, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Nov. 8, 1962, Ser. No.236,244

3 Claims. (Cl. 339-258) This invention relates to a female terminal clip for making electrical connection to a male terminal and more particularly the invention is directed to the reduction in the over-all dimensions of such clips, particularly those clips which are known in the art as flag-type connector clips.

The flag-type connector clip comprises a female receptacle which is movable into engagement with a male terminal in a first direction and has connected to the female receptacle a lead wire which projects at right angles to the direction of application to the male terminal. The invention will be described in reference to a spade type flag connector, that is a connector clip which has a flat female receptacle adapted to receive a male terminal in the form of a fiat spade as contrasted to a cylindrical pin-type male terminal.

To facilitate the complete comprehension of the problem to which the present invention is directed, an understanding of the manufacturing of the clips and the devices to which they may be applied is necessary. The ultimate use of the clips may be, for example, to make electrical connection between a motor on the inside of an hermetically sealed compressor and a source of power on the outside of the compressor, the connection being made by application of the clips to male terminals which form the electrical communication between the inside and outside of the compressor casing. Space requirements within the compressor demand that the 'clip dimensions be as small as possible. The clips may, of course, be used in many other electrical applications, a great number of which demand that the clip dimensions be maintained as small as possible for obvious reasons of economy of space.

Going further with the compressor example mentioned above, in practice there are a number of stages through which a clip goes before it is ultimately applied to the terminals within the compressorunit. First, a manufacturer of clips forms the clip receptacles from a continuous ribbon or strip of sheet metal. Simultaneously with the formation of the receptacle, the arms which are to form the lead wire engaging ferrule are cut from the ribbon stock. The clips are not at that time severed from each other but remain joined together, either end to end or side by side depending upon the manufacturers preference, and a strip of such clips is wound on a spool which is shipped to a motor manufacturer.

At the motor manufacturers plant, the strip of connector clips is fed into a crimping and cut-otf machine. An operator feeds a lead wire into the machine and a press comes down upon a connector clip. Substantially simultaneously the press crimps the ferrule forming arms about the end of the lead wire, cuts the clip off the strip and feeds a new clip from the strip position in the crimping and cut-off machine. The thus formed clips are electrically connected to a motor stator and shipped to the compressor manufacturer.

The compressor manufacturer applies the clips to terminal headers of a type to be described in detail below duringthe assembly ofthe compressor unit. For reasons which can best be understood by reference to the detailed description of the terminal header, there. is a limitation placed upon the orientation of the spade terminals which form a part of the header, the limitation being imposed by the inflexibility of known designs of the connector clips.

It has been an objective of the present invention to provide an improved connector clip by greatly reducing the longitudinal dimension of the clip, that is the dimension in the direction of application. It is a further objective of the invention to eliminate at least one of the major limitations on the orientation of the spade terminal connectors in a terminal header through the improved connector clip design.

One of the problems attending the design of a foreshortened connector clip is the need to avoid revising all of the present practices insofar as the manufacture of the clips and their assembly to the lead wires is concerned. It would be prohibitively expensive, to shorten the clip by manufacturing a receptacle and a ferrule forming portion from two parts and securing them together. Even on a one piece blank the reorientation of the ferrule with respect to the receptacle would require the revision ofthe dies for the crimping and cut-off machine but such a problem is not insurmountable.

These obstacles standing in the way of the redesign of the flag connector clip to shorten it have prevented any improvement in this much needed direction.

The present invention resides in part in solving the problem by modifying the connector clip after the lead wire has been affixed. This solution to the problem requires no revision in the manufacturing technique of the connector clips themselves or the crimping and cut-off operation by which the lead wires are attached tofthe clip. More specifically, the solution resides in the bending of the shank between the receptacle and the ferrule through an angle of almost so as to bring the ferrule from a position above the receptacle to a position alongside the rear surface of the receptacle and thereby to shorten the clip almost by half.

Once the ferrule which overlies one end of the female receptacle has been bent away from the end of the receptacle, that end becomes open to permit the passage of a male spade terminal connector. Thus the clip which was applicable to a male terminal in only one direction has, by performing the bending operation, become applicable to a male terminal in two directions. The doubling of the applicability of the clip has removed one serious limitation in the orientation of the spade terminals as will appear below.

The several features and objectives of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing my invention attached to a lead wire,

FIG. 2 is a top plan view thereof,

FIG. 3. is a front elevational view thereof,

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines 44 of FIG. 3,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a known connector applied to a terminal header, and

FIGS. 6 and 7 are perspective views showing the application of my invention to the same terminal header.

The connector clip indicated at 10 has a female reoeptacle 11 adapted to receive a male terminal in a vertical direction, a ferrule portion 12 disposed along the back of the receptacle and including a pair of arms 13 which embrace a bared end of a lead wire and a pair of arms 14 which are secured to the insulation 15 of the lead wire 16. The lead wire =16 projects from the ferrule in a horizontal direction. A U-shaped shank 17 connects the receptacle -11 with the fer-rule portion 12.

The receptacle 11 is formed by a central web 19 whose lateral edge portions are terminated in C-shaped jaws 20 and 21. The C-shaped jaws have edges 22 which face the front surface '23 of the web 19 and are spaced therefrom a distance slightly less than the thickness of the spade to which they are to be applied.

The lower edges of the C-shaped jaws 20 and 21 are flared as at 24 (see FIGS. 3 and 4) in order to facilitate the introduction of the male spade terminal into the space between the jaws and the web 19.

As shown in FIG. 4, the connector clip has a configuration illustrated in broken lines prior to the formation of the bend in the shank 17. Before the bend is formed in shank 17, the shank is co-planar with the web 19. After the ferrule portion 12 is formed by bending the arms 13 and 14 about the lead wire core and insulation respectively, the receptacle 1 1 is preferably placed in a jig to hold it firmly while the shank 17 is bent through an angle of approximately 160 toward the back of the receptacle. The 160 angle is not a critical bend, for any angle will reduce the overall height of the connector clip. However, for the sake of convenience of manufacture, the 160 angle has been found to be most suitable.

The formation of the bend in the shank 17 provides a flaring entrance to the receptatcle 11 the entrance being formed by the upper portion 27 of the edges 22 of C- shaped jaws 20 and 21 and by the curved surface 28 of shank 17 which is formed by its bending operation. The flared entrance designated at '29 facilitates the introduction of the spade terminal into the receptacle from that direction.

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 illustrate the use of the invention and the manner in which it constitutes an improvement over known flag-type connector clips.

A known flag clip is illustrated at 30 in FIG. 5. A compar son of that clip with the clips formed in accordance with the invention as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrates the substantial reduction in overall height. When clip 30 of FIG. 5 is fully applied to a spade 31, a substantial portion of the clip remains projecting above the spade. By contrast, when the clip 10 is fully applied to a spade 31, the upper edge of the clip 10 will be substantially flush with the upper edge of the spade.

In FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 the clips are applied to a device 33 'WhICh is known in the art as a terminal header or glass-to-metal seal. The terminal header is formed of a metallic dish shaped member 34 having a flange 38 and three holes 35 through which terminals 36 pass. The termlnals 36 are secured to the dish shaped member 34 by glass seals 37. The glass seals perfect an air tight seal between the dish shaped member 34 and the terminals 36 while maintaining the terminals spaced in insulated relation from the dish shaped member 34. Each terminal 36 comprises a pin extending through the dish shaped member 34. Each end of the pin 40 has a spade 31 I welded to it.

In the manufacture of a compressor, a header will be welded around the flange 38 to a hole in the compressor casing. Electrical communication between the inside of the casing and the outside thereof is made by means of the terminals 36.

As shown in FIG. 5, the known connector clip, which has the entrance to the upper end of the receptacle blocked by the overhanging ferrule and lead, can be applied to a spade 31 in only one direction. In other words, in the particular spade illustrated, the clip can be applied only with the lead projecting toward the left. If it is desired to have the lead from that spade projecting toward the right, a diflerent clip having the orientation of the lead and ferrules reversed would have to be employed or the position of the spade 31 with respect to pin 40 would have to be reversed.

In the clip .10 of the invention, however, by bending the ferrule and lead away from the upper end of the receptacle 11, application to a spade 31 can be made in either of two directions. In the normal direction illustrated in FIG. 6 the lead projects toward the left. In the reverse direction when the spade is introduced through the entrance designated at 29 in FIG. 4 the lead projects toward the right.

The ability to make both left and right hand applications of a single connector clip is very advantageous to both the compressor manufacturer and the header manufacturer for it provides a much greater latitude in the design, orientation, and spacing of the terminals.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A female connector for making a plug-on electrical connection to a male terminal comprising,

a receptacle including a flat web having its side edge portions terminated in C-shaped jaws which are adapted to grip a male terminal between said aws and said web,

a U-shaped shank forming an integral extension of said web,

the bight portion of said U-shaped shank forming w th edge portions of said jaws a flared entrance for Introducing a spade terminal into said receptacle,

lead wire-engaging ferrule means terminating said shank,

said ferrule means being disposed centrally of and adjacent the surface of said web on the opposite side from said jaws and holding the lead wire in a d1rection generally parallel to the plane of said web and at right angles to the direction of introduction of the spade terminal.

2. A female connector for making a plug-on electrical connection to a male terminal comprising,

a receptacle including a fiat web having its side edge portions terminated in C-shaped jaws having edges which are adapted to grip the male terminal between said jaws and said web,

a U-shaped shank forming an integral extension of sa1d web,

the bight portion of said U-shaped shank forming with terminal-gripping portions of said edges of said jaws a flared entrance for introducing a male terminal into said receptacle,

lead wire-engaging ferrule means adjacent the end of said shank and integral therewith,

said ferrule means being disposed centrally of said web on the opposite side from said jaws and holding the lead wire in a direction generally parallel to the plane of said web and at right angles to the direction of introduction of the male terminal.

3. A female connector for making a plug-on electrical connection to a male terminal comprising,

a receptacle including a flat web having its side edge portions terminated in C-shaped jaws having edges which are adapted to grip the male terminal between said jaw edges and said web, said receptacle having two ends for receipt of a male terminal,

a U-shaped shank forming an integral extension of said web,

lead wire-engaging ferrule means adjacent the end of said shank and integral with said shank,

said ferrule means being disposed centrally of and ad jacent the surface of said web on the opposite side from said jaws,

said ferrule means holding an end of a lead wire generally parallel to the plane of said web and at right angles to said side edge portions of said jaws,

the major portion of said ferrule means lying within a projection of said receptacle in a direction perpendicular to the plane of said web,

5 said receptacle adapted to receive a male terminal at either of its ends thereby permitting the reversal of the orientation of said lead wire.

References Cited by the Examiner 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,552,882 9/1925 Breaznell 339-258 1,706,412 3/1929 Roberts 339-275 2,451,800 10/ 1948" Buchanan et a1. 339-256 X 2,473,570 6/1949 Chirelstein 29-4555 10 2,591,009 4/ 1952 Riche. 2,606,264 8/ 1952 Jacobi 339-223 X 6 1/1960 Matthysse et a1. 339-258 8/1960 Batcheller 339-258 3/1961 Sowa 29-155.55 4/1961 Swengel 339-258 X 7/1963 Batcheller 339-223 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1/1940 Australia.

3/ 1925 Great Britain.

7/ 1962 Great Britain.

JOSEPH D. SEERS, Primary Examiner. 

1. A FEMALE CONNECTOR FOR MAKING A PLUG-ON ELECTRICAL CONNECTION TO A MALE TERMINAL COMPRISING, A RECEPTACLE INCLUDING A FLAT WEB HAVING ITS SIDE EDGE PORTIONS TERMINATED IN C-SHAPED JAWS WHICH ARE ADAPTED TO GRIP A MALE TERMINAL BETWEEN SAID JAWS AND SAID WEB, A U-SHAPED SHANK FORMING AN INTEGRAL EXTENSION OF SAID WEB, THE BIGHT PORTION OF SAID U-SHAPED SHANK FORMING WITH EDGE PORTIONS OF SAID JAWS A FLARED ENTRANCE FOR INTRODUCING A SPADE TERMINAL INTO SAID RECEPTACLE, LEAD WIRE-ENGAGING FERRULE MEANS TERMINATING SAID SHANK, SAID FERRULE MEANS BEING DISPOSED CENTRALLY OF AND ADJACENT THE SURFACE OF SAID WEB ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE FROM SAID JAWS AND HOLDING THE LEAD WIRE IN A DIRECTION GENERALLY PARALLEL TO THE PLANE OF SAID WEB AND AT RIGHT ANGLES TO THE PLANE OF SAID WEB AND SPADE TERMINAL. 